SilverStar's Tier List
This tiering system, rather than being based on specific attributes like lifting strength and durability or a "Who'd beat who in a fight?" heirarchy, is instead a system that can rank how "Good" an alien or character can be under normal circumstances by ranking where they fit in this usefulness tier. And by normal circumstances, I mean... Well, any alien can be useful under the right circumstances, and anyone can be a hero. A writer can easily create a scenario in which any alien, even one that seems rather lame or situational, can be the perfect guy for the job. Ben in his human form could beat Vilgax in one shot, if there was a big enough laser in his hands. But divorced from the specific scenarios you could put an alien into, and how powerful an alien "Could" theoretically become after external factors, such as absorbing enough sunlight or eating enough matter or copying enough powers or training for long enough... What is the alien good at, how good is that alien at their jobs, and how useful does this make that alien? And if they're only good at certain jobs that are only useful in certain situations, how easy is it for the alien to create a situation in which they can be useful? (For example, while Cannonbolt is at his best when moving fast, it's easy for him to get the ball rolling. And while Jury Rig is at his best when dismantling or rebuilding things, he can't build anything new without parts.) For example, Upgrade would be the best possible thing to turn into if you were in the Death Star and some villain had it pointed at a planet you liked, but he's far less useful without any technology around to absorb. Ripjaws is great when you're underwater or near water, but not exactly the greatest above land. Pesky Dust would be incredibly useful if you wanted to put someone to sleep, avoid a fight, end a fight without property damage or injured hostages, or get intel from someone's mind, but he would be useless against robotic enemies and aliens that don't sleep/dream, or are able to control dreams better than him and kick him out of their minds. Pesky Dust and Gutrot can both put foes to sleep, but while Gutrot can create a wide variety of alien chemicals, he can't manipulate dreams directly like Pesky can. Either can be more useful than the other in certain situations, but both will usually be more useful than... let's say Molestache. And Gutrot's list of things he's been seen doing (And list of things he could theoretically do) is longer than Pesky Dust's, so Gutrot would outrank Pesky Dust. While it's possible for low-tier characters to temporarily become far stronger than they usually are through some external means - such as absorbing enough sunlight, or eating enough matter/souls/dreams, or wielding the right alien tech, copying enough powers, training for long enough, reading enough spellbooks and carrying enough mana-boosting charms, or draining enough life energy - the ability to reach a higher power tier temporarily under the right circumstances and defeat someone of a higher tier doesn't permanently raise you to a higher tier unless the change is permanent. For example, an Anodite and a Saiyan could spend decades training to rise through the ranks and permanently become stronger. They could go from barely being able to beat one Swampfire in a fight to being able to beat up a hundred of them at the same time. An Upchuck could eat a ton of stuff and then fire a massive laser that defeats both of them in one shot. But that Upchuck wouldn't permanently stay strong enough to beat more high-tier aliens, he'd need to access that power temporarily through external means. You know, eat more stuff. Anyone can be a hero and anyone can win in fiction. This tier list is just a way to rank how "Good" an alien can be. Please do not add your characters to this tier list directly or argue over what the strongest characters in each tier are. Instead, it is best used as a guide to keep in mind while designing aliens if you want to avoid them becoming overpowered or underpowered. Tier Seven "No good at anything", becoming this would be worse than being an average human. Joke characters with no redeeming qualities. Tier Six "I have one job, and I suck at it! But I'm still slightly better than the average human!" Tier Five "I have one job, and I'm kinda good at it. But I'm useless in other roles, and my one job is pretty situational". For example, a melee-only Underwater Combat alien with middling speed and average (for aliens) strength that can't survive on dry land, and lacks a ranged option and a reliable way to bring fights underwater, such as water manipulation/creation. Or an alien that can fly, but isn't very good at anything else. Or an alien that's only good at being slippery and fleeing danger. Or an alien that's only good at getting beat up. If your watch gives you the wrong alien and turns you into one of these, you'll need to get creative to win. Tier Four "I have one job and I'm the best at it! And my one job is something that's pretty useful/necessary rather often, something that's always good to have in your back pocket in case of an emergency!". You still have one job. Fortunately this one job is something incredibly useful like Healing, flying pretty fast and attacking from afar, bouncing off walls while being super tough and heavy, building/repairing/understanding and using powerful alien tech, ending fights quickly through "Hax" aka those tricks that can let weak fighters easily defeat far stronger foes such as sleep inducement and timestopping, and so on. Tier Four aliens tend to be small or physically frail to compensate for how game-changing, fight-ending, or even story-breaking their powers can be. Writers will often introduce foes immune to the "Hax" abilities of these aliens to necessitate the usage of other, more physically strong aliens and longer, more visually-interesting fight scenes. However, Tier Four aliens don't necessarily have to be frail. Terraspin might not be the fastest alien out there, but he's pretty tough, he's a decent flier, his wind attacks are pretty strong, and he's completely immune to mana. Tier Three "I'm the best at my one job, and I'm still useful when my one job isn't useful or needed!". Usually the guys with a wide grab-bag of powers. If your watch gives you the wrong alien and turns you into these, it's not so bad. For example, Swampfire would still be useful in a fight where fire/plant control can't be used, as his super strength, stretching, regenerative immortality, and regeneration would still make him a good fighter with a lot of staying power. His super strength, stretching, plant control, and regeneration could also be used in a wide variety of situations. Same goes for Big Chill: He isn't just a flight and intangibility alien, he's also an ice creation and manipulation alien, a super strong alien, and a super tough alien. Tier threes tend to be good general combat aliens, but they'd typically lose fights to Tier Two aliens. Tier Two Just as much raw destructive power as the Tier One guys, but nowhere near as much versatility or flexibility. These aliens often have less flexibility than the Tier Three and Tier Four aliens, too. These are usually the strong tough fast flying humanoid types that could wipe the floor with 99% of the galaxy in a single afternoon. The kind that seem almost biologically engineered to be the best combat aliens possible. They can destroy planets with punches or energy attacks, but they can't just snap their fingers and will a galaxy full of them into being. These aliens could punch out Gods and give Celestialsapiens a good fistfight, but they couldn't beat Gods or Celestialsapiens in a "Create cool stuff" contest. If they could do that, then they're Tier One. Tier One "I can do anything! I can even lose!" If Tier Two aliens are the guys that can give the Gods a good fight, then Tier Ones can upstage the Gods. These guys are incredibly powerful and often rather flexible. The powerful reality-warpers able to warp reality with a thought, the mighty wizards able to do anything with a single spell, the gods of time or space or whatever, and the mightiest Omnitrix masters. Tier One power is usually the kind of thing reserved for the strongest aliens out there. However, these Tier One characters can still be challenged, and they can still be defeated. There are still some limits on this immense power, even if it's only what the character can think of when it comes to using this power. And turning into Alien X means dealing with its split personalities until you convince them to give you full control of the alien. Using this power might have immense drawbacks, like a modified Omnitrix's "Overclock Mode" that harms the user each time it is activated. Alien X is at the top of this tier. These kinds of characters work great as incredibly powerful side characters, such as Beerus and Whis from Dragon Ball Super. Or one-off characters like the Naljeans. Or immensely powerful background elements like the Celestialsapien race. This kind of power makes a great motivation for villains, too. Surely, Aggregor can't be the only baddie out there who wants to be this strong, or even stronger! A great story can be told about the heroes trying to stop the baddie from getting this strong. Giving your protagonist access to this kind of power as anything other than a last resort isn't recommended. Unless you can think up a reason why your character doesn't just always use this to win and make everyone else irrelevant, such as "He doesn't think it's his place to use Alien X's power to reshape reality unless absolutely necessary" or "He wants to prove to the universe that every alien in his watch matters, not just the best one". Tier Zero "I can do anything, except lose. I know everything that has happened, is happening, could ever happen, and will happen. Everything happens only because I will it. My existence is a story-breaking contradiction." Any tier above this would be pointless, as this is the "Too omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-everything to fit on this scale" tier. This isn't the "Best of the best" tier, this is the "Too strong to exist in a story without ending it forever" tier. The strongest characters out there need to do something to achieve Tier One power, even if it's just snapping their fingers or knowing the right spell and then casting it. Tier Zeroes? They don't reach this level of power, they are power. Impossible power. These are the guys that can create objects too heavy ffor them to lift, and then lift them anyway because they're beyond all limitations, even logical limitations. At least with the Celestialsapiens, you can say Ben doesn't want to turn into one of those all the time because he wants to prove other aliens can be heroes too, or he doesn't think it's his place to use unlimited cosmic power to rewrite reality, only save it when absolutely necessary. And you can say your OC doesn't want to use Alien X all the time because you don't want to deal with its two personalities. But Tier Zero? Tier Zero is something above an infinity gauntlet with all the stones, above all reality warpers and everything else out there. If a phrase could sum up their power, it would be "Comedically beyond an infinite number of infinities". It's as if everything's a book and its writer is the Tier Zero character. Tier Zero is where characters go when their existence makes you say "But if this character is this limitless, why doesn't he just solve all problems ever and create the ultimate utopia for all?". These guys are good for theoretical discussion about what the Ultimate Character would look like or how good the Absolute Best Omnitrix Possible would be, they also work great as literal gods of the setting that might help characters out from time to time but don't feel like interfering directly for whatever reason. But these guys are impossible to write a story about unless it's an origin story about how your character got to Tier Zero. You could tell an interesting story about Alien X flying off into a dimension full of other Tier One beings to have entertaining fights with all of them. But Tier Zero? This is where all the incomprehensibly infinite characters go when it's impossible to figure out whether they could beat another incomprehensibly infinite character. This is the "Best friends with Pun-Pun" tier. Tier Zero works only as a motivation for villains - They want to achieve this level of ultimate power, and the heroes have to stop them before they get it - or an emergencies-only "Ultimate Alien X" kind of deal. Category:Lists